Disclaimer - I do not own anything even remotely related to The Mighty Ducks. I only wish I had thought of them first…

Italics indicate character thought.

Over the next several months Beau found herself pleasantly surprised. She had been worried that with the end of hockey season would come less and less time spent with Charlie and the other boys. It couldn't have been further from the truth. Spring break had come and gone and now with workouts four days a week and their weekends free, Beau realized that these were not just her teammates, but the people she would forever call her college friends.

The pain of Parker's passing was something that was worse on some days than others and she had found that Charlie always knew what she was thinking and exactly how to help her deal with it and that Guy was one of the best friends a person could ask for.

"Are you sure, Guy?" Beau drew her knees up and propped her chin on top of them. "Because I think he's seemed…distant." She shook her head. "No, distant isn't the right word. He's seemed stressed and unwilling to talk to me about it." She was talking about Charlie and their relationship was making her nervous. She talked to him about everything and Charlie didn't ever seem to want to share his problems with her. He refused to talk about his mother more than he had to and he most definitely had not told her why he was looking tired and frustrated.

Guy leaned back in the chair at his computer desk and thought seriously about it. "We're all really close here Beau, and he hasn't said a word about you two." He shrugged. Rachel was right. All of them, every single one of them, expressed themselves through shrugging. It was bizarre. "It's work, and being worried about money after school, and just trying his hardest not to have to ask his mother for anything…to which I can relate." He rolled his eyes.

It made her feel better to know that it wasn't her and she smiled sadly. "Yeah, I know you said that last time you were home she was on your case about Connie. Is she still harassing you to break up with her?"

Guy let his chair fall back to the floor with a bang and nodded. "She has never liked Connie and she can't understand why we have been together so long. She played the field all through high school and college and she expects me to do the same thing. She doesn't understand, or care, that I already know that Connie is the one for me."

Beau was grinning. "As in the one for you…forever?"

Guy blushed and smiled. "Yeah."

As the year had gone on Beau's relationship with her roommate Hailey had gotten…well, strange. Hailey was into what Charlie referred to as, "that hinky dinky new-age crap" and kept insisting that she could ground herself to the earth's energy and massage people without touching them. Beau tried to be the voice of reason, questioning how it was possible to ground oneself to the earth's energy from the ninth floor of the dorm (through nine floors of cinder block), and usually only received and eye roll in response. Between this and her growing relationships, she found herself spending every ounce of free time, and some time that wasn't free, at Charlie, Adam, Guy, and Fulton's house.

One thing that had changed, sadly, was that in the off-season Charlie was working a lot of hours at the local ice rink to help pay his way through school. He was trying desperately to keep his debt after school to a minimum and it meant working every chance that he got. Beau still hung out at his house, doing homework, helping Adam clean (because let's face it, no one else was going to do it), and most recently, helping Guy make a decision about a pet.

"What about a hermit crab?" Averman looked serious. He really did. When everyone just looked at him he explained in a rush. "They are really good pets, Guy. The just hang out and don't eat much and you hardly ever have to clean their cages and they are like a total of ten dollars to get the whole shebang."

Beau looked at him blandly. "Averman, stop talking."

"Please." Guy looked at Fulton who shrugged.

"What about a snake or a lizard or something?" It was such a typical response from him and it garnered a very typical response from Guy.

"Oh, gross." He shivered. "No way do I want a snake that I have to feed alive things to." Guy didn't even eat meat so there was no way that he was going to feed it to something else. "Beau, tell me you have an actual idea, because right now all I can think of is a dog and I know I don't have the time for one."

"A cat?" Charlie looked extremely unsure. They were all sitting around the television in a very late night ritual of The Simpsons and popcorn.

Guy looked at him, taking a long drink of his water. "What? Is it too creepy guy with cats, can't get a date, stalkerish?"

Charlie shoved a handful of popcorn in his mouth, talking around it. "Well….yeah. And your girlfriend being hundreds of miles away certainly doesn't help that image." He coughed when Beau whapped his chest with her fist. "Hey! Lay off! You know it's true." He looked around at Fulton and Adam. "Am I right? Am I right?"

Beau climbed over Charlie on the couch to sit closer to Guy and pointed at him. "Guy, if there is anyone that can pull off the 'I'm a guy that has a cat and my girlfriend doesn't live here' it's you. You're confident and cute and you do have a girlfriend."

Guy looked skeptical and turned back to the TV. "Okay."

"So you spent all day looking at cats with her?" Connie was sitting cross-legged on her bed, her door shut to drown out her roommates watching some cheesy girly movie. She was holding her favorite picture of Guy in her hands. It was something she had started doing when she had moved so far away. It made her feel closer to him to be looking at his smiling face while she was hearing his voice through the tinny cell phone speaker.

"Yeah. It was a ton of fun." Guy was quiet for a minute. "That's not a problem for you, is it Cons?"

She was quick to answer. "No! Of course not." She opened her mouth to change the subject, but couldn't bring herself to do it. "Actually, yeah Guy. It is really weird to know that you spent all day with another girl."

Guy was surprised. Actually, he was shocked. This had never been an issue in the many years they had been dating. "Seriously? Connie, she is just a friend."

Connie let out a big sight, trying to think of the best way to put how she was feeling. "Right, but you've started talking about her all the time. You guys practice together, she hangs out at your house, she…you sound like you are getting so close with her."

"Well, yeah." Guy realized that he should have preceded the comment with an explanation. "Connie, you had to know when a girl joined our team and started dating Charlie that she would be around a lot. I can't help it that she and I get along. She is a really good friend and I understand how you are feeling, but…she's a really good friend. Do I lose that because she's a girl?"

In her head and her heart Connie knew she was being silly, but that was just the nature of relationships. You wanted someone to be yours, yours alone. Sometimes it was hard to acknowledge that they had parts of their lives that weren't completely wrapped up in you. "I really liked her when I met her at the Halloween party."

"I know you did."

"And she's got to be cool is Charlie likes her so much."

"Charlie loves her, Connie. This girl isn't going away even if she isn't my friend anymore." He paused, already knowing what Connie's answer would be to his next question, but still afraid to ask. "You trust me, don't you?"

She didn't even have to think. "Of course I trust you."

His voice was kind, completely unacusing, but demanding something of her nonetheless. "Then trust me."

"Okay, I'm going to go ahead and have to admit that this thing is really cute." Fulton was holding the scrawny black and white cat with the huge ears at arms length. Guy rolled his eyes and snatched the animal away, setting it on the floor near the elaborate play house that Beau had insisted he buy.

"So now it needs a name." He looked at Beau. "And nothing too sissy-like."

She held up her hands, palms forward. "I don't know why you're looking at me. Adam's the one that suggested Fluffy."

Adam glared. "I had a cat when I was a kid named Fluffy. It's a very popular cat name."

Charlie waved him down. "That may be, Banksie, but this cat is unique." They all watched as it jumped in the air and landed on its side. They had yet to see it land on all fours, as cats were supposed to do. He shook his head. "It needs a unique name." He grinned and pretended to pull on non-existent suspenders. "How about Conway?" He was pelted with popcorn and boos from around the room. "Geez. Okay. What are all of your great suggestions?"

"Snake." Fulton was serious and was also pelted with popcorn.

Beau looked over at the television, chuckling as Millhouse, Bart Simpson, and Homer tried to launch a rocket. It ended in Millhouse's eyebrows being blown off. She grinned.

"How about Millhouse?" She winced, waiting to be hit by popcorn but when she wasn't she opened her eyes they were all actually thinking about the name. Guy wasn't convinced though.

"Too unique." He thought, starting at the TV screen and then watching the cat run into Fulton's leg and bounced off and promptly hit the ground. The perfect name practically smacked him in the face. "Ralph. As in Ralph Wiggum."